Click on this photo for a close look at the new age of satellite messaging, tracking, and distress handhelds, or at least three of the early contenders. I was cautiously keen on the DeLorme inReach when it first surfaced, but then I had to bite my tongue. Though I was experiencing its reasonably fast and affordable two-way global messaging back in August, I couldn't discuss it because of the beta testing NDA. Fair enough, as the inReach system evolved substantially during the beta process. Plus I've now had a chance to compare it with the less expensive Spot Connect, whose one-way custom messaging via Globalstar was discussed here in January. Not to mention the pro-oriented BriarTek Cerberus system, which also appeared here last January and which uses the same Iridium 9602 data modem as the inReach. The news is pretty much all good for anyone who boats (or hikes, or whatever) beyond cell service, but it's going to take several entries just to lay out what I've learned so far...
I use the iPad version of EarthNC fairly often because I still like how it can overlay and detail NOAA weather buoy and forecast info, a feature it had when I first tried it. I also like how the quilted NOAA raster charts look on a pad (but then again I'm an old guy). Now EarthNC has added a pretty full featured route-making routine to its iOS version, as I tried to illustrate above by laying out the San Diego America's Cup course I'll be seeing up close later this week (I'm so excited). Note how I was able to easily type in waypoint names, and what you can't see is how easy it is to move one, or delete it, or add a new one along a track line...
It may be a bit early to discuss this Scanstrut iPad case because it's not scheduled to ship until February, but I know a lot of boaters are wondering what's possible in this realm, and besides it goes with yesterday's iPads-on-yachts-of-the-future entry. Plus, as noted in this Scanstrut blog, the case is "short listed" for a DAME award in two weeks. And I got Scanstrut to share some information on the optional mount that can go with it...
I think mounts are a big deal. There are all sorts of electronics (and hardware) that I'd like to move around my boat (and beyond) some times, but other times I want them firmly fixed (though hopefully with possible adjustments for glare and so forth). And though I've yet to try any, I'm impressed with how Tallon is extending its already interesting mount system. Check how neatly that new Tallon Lowrance Elite Socket makes both the adjustable RAM arm and the power/transducer cable easy to dismount, and how it includes an extra 12v socket too...
I spent a fair amount of NMEA Conference & Expo time reviewing products that are already shipping -- more on that Technology Award tomorrow -- but I still got a fair chance to see the new, new stuff (like the Fusion Marine Stereo wow). Check out that Green Marine Bridge Command Display System demo above, for instance, and don't miss the video. I don't think there's ever been a monitor like that STAR at upper right, and I wondered how an owner or installer would set up the unusual STretched Aspect Ratio on the PC driving it. No problem: The monitor itself splits off the top third of a standard screen resolution, so that Maretron N2KView gauge display was simply set up on a regular monitor with that in mind. Slick. And of course there was much more...
Pardon the lousy show booth photography, but you've got to see what Fusion Audio debuted at NMEA, and it's not fully online yet. The new MS-IP700 at upper right obviously has a color screen, but it also has both NMEA 2000 and Ethernet ports on its backside. Which means that it will be easy to install that new MS-NRX200 wired remote and it will even be able to display instrument info on its 2.7-inch monochrome screen (which is the same size as the 700 screen, because the collaged images are not to scale). And, yes, the Ethernet port is connected to a WiFi router which is being used by a Fusion app on that iPad at left to choose tunes, adjust volume levels on four possible zones, etc. But that is not all!...
My experience having Verizon-provided internet access over cellular data protocols to my cruising sailboat spans three years and five devices, the Verizon 4G LTE MiFi built by Novetel released this summer being the most current. They've worked well enough that I've never messed with a high power boat WiFi system, like Ben has, but they are not perfect...
Perhaps the main thing I learned while testing the Rogue Wave and the WireAP this summer is that I love having a private WiFi hotspot on Gizmo. The Rogue is Ethernet cabled to Land & Sea's refurbished Netgear router and both are wired to a 12v fuse block, while of course the WireAP simply has a single 12v feed because both its high power WiFi client and access point are in that yellow waterproof case. So in either case I can step aboard, flip one switch and if the last shore hotspot used is still available then everything that can be online via Wifi -- Datalux nav computer, Mac Mini, iPad, iPhone, Android Incredible, or even the Vizio TV -- is online whenever it's powered up...
"Iridium Force" -- announced today with much fanfare -- seems to be an entire "vision for the future of personal mobile satellite communications", a bunch of new hard- and software products, and what may be a heck of a business strategy. You can read the press release or sign onto a whole Iridium site full of videos and more, but just the hardware tells a lot of the story. The new Iridium 9575 Extreme handset seen above is not just a highly ruggedized version of Iridium's most recent 9555 sat phone; it includes an internal GPS, a dedicated SOS button, and it seems capable of doing most everything that devices based on Iridium's 9602 SBD modem can do, like, say, the DeLorme inReach and the YellowBrick3 that are both due to ship soon...
I'm pretty impressed with the Garmin GTU10 I've been testing this summer. Inside that little IPx7 waterproof case is a sensitive GPS, a GSM cell modem, and a fairly able lithium ion battery. For $200 you get the hardware, a cute case (meant primarily for hanging on a dog collar), and a one year standard data subscription which normally costs $50. The subscription doesn't get you much in terms of remote tracking -- just the last ten points, whose spacing will vary with settings -- but you do get unlimited notifications about when the GTU 10 enters and/or leaves up to 10 geofence areas that you can define at mygarmin.com, or with the free Android and iOS Garmin Tracker apps. And aren't geofences the key to knowing that your boat or tender are where they're supposed to be, especially when anchored?...
